Education. Production. Distribution.

Nerdvana presents Small Press Saturday – aka, Lessons Learned Self-Publishing Comics

In September, I self-published a minicomic and two zines, tabled at a First Friday art show, wrote this mantra every week, posted four action figure unboxing videos, taught two comics-making classes for teens, donated my Smokey Bear collection to a local museum, and partnered with and performed at a local storytelling event — all positive expressions of creativity and community engagement.

Yet, at the end of the month, I felt totally unproductive. All I could think of was the OTHER things I’d hoped to do but DIDN’T. All I could think of was the time I’d WASTED.

That IS the enemy of the creative, isn’t it? TIME. If we aren’t squandering it, we’re thinking there isn’t ENOUGH of it. 

Despite my fairly consistent output as a self-publisher (I ship bimonthly envelopes of various minicomics and zines to subscribers throughout the year), I consider myself inherently lazy. I often mistake needed rest for procrastination — when procrastination is ACTUALLY misplaced ambition. Laziness is simply recreational rest, and considering how my gears are always grinding through ideas or stories, I’m not sure I’ve ever had the PRIVILEGE of laziness. No, I’m definitely a procrastinator, often bending time in any direction but toward the thing I really want to work on. 

Fortunately, I’ve developed a cure for my personal plague of procrastination. I’ve been working on a strategy for creative time management for years, and I recently had a revelation that I’m adapting as this week’s mantra. The mantra is a three-pronged approach to maximize any time you dedicate to your creative pursuits, and it is, quite simply —

Education. Production. Distribution. 

If you’re doing any one of these three things, you’re using your creative time wisely. See, we put so much stock in the producTION, as in the MAKING, that we often fail to consider education and distribution equally as producTIVE — but they are. Even if you AREN’T plagued with a tendency toward procrastination — if you’re creating all the time, but that’s ALL you’re doing? It’s just not enough.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to dissect each of these three strategies to express just how important they are. These sub-mantras will not only convince you that these are three things you COULD do to make your creative time valuable, but that they’re three things you SHOULD do, in equal measure. Stay tuned.

After all, you don’t have to feel like you’ve wasted time to re-evaluate how you can use it more wisely.

Russ Kazmierczak Jr.

Russ Kazmierczak, Jr. is a Phoenix-based cartoonist and the creator of Amazing Arizona Comics, a mini-comic book that satirizes local news, history, and culture with superhero adventure. He was the Phoenix New Times’ 2018 Best Storyteller and one of The Copper Courier’s “9 People Who Are Making A Difference in Arizona” in 2023. Russ has taught comics classes at Bookman’s in Phoenix and Mesa, Phoenix Art Museum, Gilbert HD South, and other venues throughout the Valley. Follow his work and inquire about his classes on Instagram @amazingazcomics.